HOW TO MEASURE IMPACT IN A LARGE COMMERCIAL NEWSROOM

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Daisy Okoti

Nation Media Group - KENYA

Why We Measure

To avoid underreporting the impact of our journalism

Through measurement, we answer the following critical questions:

How relevant is the content to my audiences?

Did anyone see it/read it/ hear it?

How much time did users spend with it and what did they do with it?

What storytelling techniques are effective?

And most importantly, what happened after the content was consumed?

Our ultimate goal is to make a difference. And we only know if we are making a difference if we measure our impact.

What We Measure

1. Contents and outputs

Stories

Types

Events

Broadcast

Print

Multimedia

Categories

Framework Topics

Enterprise level

Audio(podcasts)

Twitter spaces

Trainings/workshops

What We Measure

3. Audience Impacts

Awareness

Knowledge

Community

Action

Self-efficacy

Attitude

Any evidence that journalism led to collective action such as fundraising, marching,

signing a petition or writing to an elected representative.

Other individual feedback captured through Facebook, actions people take after

reading content and reader emails.

• Inquiry
• Influencer engages with our content
• Source shares benefit of content to them – for example, a scholarship to go to school

What We Measure

4. Influencer Impacts

Awards/recognition

Events

Amplification of content

We capture to what extent our journalism has been followed, shared, commented on, linked to, amplified

or recognized by influencers or influential organizations such as the media, civil society organizations,

academia, think tanks and international organizations.

General commendations/ recognitions/ high profile invitations to subject matter events/ media

interviews/ awards.

• Content used in newsletter
• Staff interviewed
• Panel invitation to speak or moderate
• Op-ed response/feedback/republication

What We Measure

5. Decision-maker impacts

Policy making impacts

Individual DM Impacts

Debate enhancing impacts

Evidence of the journalism’s contribution to Policy Change in Government

Evidence of the journalism’s contribution to Strategy Change in the Private Sector

Government investigation

Institutional actions

Policy change

Law proposed

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ENGAGEMENT

ATTENTION TIME

PAGEVIEWS

• Three key ingredients which point us to our impact are the number of people engaging with our content, how long they spend with our content and what they do after engaging with our content.

How to think about metrics

How We Measure

Metrics for News

Alto Intelligence

Impact Tracker

Constella Intelligence and Impact tracker often work together

Evidence of the journalism’s contribution to Strategy Change in the Private Sector

Data analysis

Thematic analysis

HOW WE MEASURE

We use a combination of qualitative and quantitative tools.

1.

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Pulls information from our Google Analytics.

Gives us key metrics as well as direction about where we need to investigate further.

This is why it is critical to ensure that as much as possible, we publish our content online.

2.

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Like Metrics for News, CI relies on information published online as well as on your social media platforms.

Primarily, it helps us report on key influencer and decision maker impacts from our journalism.

Metrics for News

Constella Intelligence

3.

This is an offline tool which captures audience feedback about our journalism.

The feedback must demonstrate change. It can be something from as simple as someone understanding their risk of disease to something as complex as a policy change or a policy directive.

This has to be captured manually by your team members.

Surveys at the beginning and end of the grants period are other examples.

Impact Tracker

OFFLINE IMPACT